Clean energy is next big opportunity after the Industrial Revolution: Sir David King at ISGW 2016

“Energy is the biggest market place in the world and my take is that after the industrial revolution clean technology is the next biggest opportunity,” said Sir David King, the United Kingdom's Special Representative on Climate Change, who is in India to attend the India Smart Grid Week that opened in the Capital today.

King, who was previously the British government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, is leading a team of British companies who have come here to showcase their prowess in smart grid technology.

“In Britain, the clean energy sector turnover is around £120 billion and employs close to a million people,” he said, emphasising that the UK is well placed to support India’s ambitious plans of ‘electricity for all’ by 2019.

During the visit, the climate change representative also hopes to “strengthen UK-India collaboration on combating climate change and enhancing energy security.” He also met top officials as well as Indian and British businesses to discuss commercial opportunities in clean energy and low carbon technology.

Speaking to BusinessLine, King said that UK and India share common objectives in the clean energy space and that Prime Minister Modi was a key supporter of the Mission Innovation project, which was launched at the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris last year, where 20 countries became signatories to a commitment to double investment in research and development in order to accelerate public and private global clean energy research.

“What this means is that researchers will get funding for clean technology. The programme is going to provide a competitive reconnection within Science & Technology and a roll out in the market.”